The Canadian Air & Space Museum launches its first fundraising campaign after being evicted from its historical location. Without a source of revenue, there is a dire need for funds to store and preserve its existing priceless Collection. Watch actor Harrison Ford video.

Online PR News – 25-November-2012 – Toronto, Ontario – The now “temporarily virtual” Canadian Air and Space Museum is pleased to announce the launch of its first fundraising campaign 14 months after closing its doors to the public at Toronto’s Downsview Park.

The fundraising campaign can be found on-line at the crowd-source funding web site Indiegogo.com under the URL www.indiegogo.com/casmuseum. There are several donation levels to choose from, starting at $5.

Personal video messages of support to the Museum can be viewed from Hollywood actor and pilot Harrison Ford, Canadian actress Amanda Tapping from the TV series’ Stargate and Sanctuary, and Canadian actress Michelle Goodeve of TV’s Degrassi Junior High.

After its eviction from its historic site in Downsview Park in September 2011, the Museum has spent the last year packing its priceless collection of tens of thousands of displays, artifacts, archives, documents and aircraft into 44, 40-foot freight containers, which now sit in a parking lot.

Without a means of generating any revenue since September 2011, the Museum has an immediate urgent need to raise funds to preserve the existing Collection by getting it into proper indoor environmentally-adequate storage before winter weather sets in.

Phase 1 of the fundraising campaign has a goal of $500,000, which will be primarily directed to two immediate needs:
1) Preserving the Museum’s collection that now sits in 44 freight containers. Sizable indoor storage space needs to be found, with proper environmental conditions, for the contents to be unloaded before winter weather sets in. Afterwards, monthly storage rental fees needs to be covered.
2) Pay to construct a temporary hangar to store the Museum’s two precious items – the only full-scale metal replica of the Avro Arrow and the City of Toronto’s WWII Lancaster Bomber. These are the only two items remaining in the Downsview location, because due to their size, there is no current storage available for them.

In the meantime, the Museum is pleased to announce that it is in discussions with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) to allow the Museum to reopen its doors at a spectacular location on the south end of Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport. If a deal is reached, the Museum will be located between Canada’s busiest runway and highway (Highway 401), offering convenient access to an outstanding educational and visitor experience to millions of Greater Toronto Area residents, student field trips, tourists and Pearson airport layover passengers.

"A ‘new’ Canadian Air & Space Museum has the potential to realize a world-class facility dedicated to the achievements of our pioneers and to inspire a new generation of air and space innovators and entrepreneurs," said Ian McDougall, Chairman of the not-for-profit Canadian Air & Space Museum. “Yet the road ahead is long, and our immediate concern is focused on the safety and preservation of the existing collection. We are appealing to everyone to contribute towards this very worthwhile cause and help keep the legacy of aviation and military history alive.”

Canadian Air & Space Museum Background

The Canadian Air & Space Museum (formerly the Toronto Aerospace Museum) opened its doors in 1998 in a historic location in Downsview Park. Housed in the original manufacturing facility of de Havilland Aircraft of Canada and later, SPAR Aerospace, the Museum captured the history of Toronto’s and Canada’s significant achievements in the areas of aviation and space exploration.

On September 20, 2011, the Canadian Air & Space Museum's lease was terminated by its landlord Downsview Park and the Museum closed to the public.

A campaign was immediately launched to save both the not-for-profit Museum and the historic building located at 65 Carl Hall Road. It now appears that both objectives have been successful, with the Museum in negotiations with the GTAA to develop a new facility, and Downsview Park having indicated it will refurbish and repurpose the de Havilland building, home of Canada's most famous aircraft -- the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver bush plane, and first spacecraft -- the Alouette 1 satellite.